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Seasonal Displays

01-25-2006, 03:11 PM

Quote[/b] ]I wanted to get into the seasonal displays last year with a company sign in threeor four of the yards we placed them in. I anticipated giving this product/service to the top three or four of my customers in return for the signage next to the display, these customers are in high traffic areas as well.

Very fascinating.
When you say seasonal displays, what would this consist of?
How would you charge for this?

Well we have the fall and summer/fourth of July displays worked out, we at the very least need a spring display to, at a minimum round out the seasons that are primary focus to us. The fall display consists of straw bales, gourds, pumpkins, stalks of dried corn, etc. while the summer/Fourth of July one will be a patriotic themed one. We take into account material costs plus markup and an estimate of manhours to deliver, assemble, dis-assemble and deliver and or dispose of. There will be some items that we will be able to re-use and will therefore store. This would all be calculated in a single price for simplicities sake.

We could use some ideas for a spring display and perhaps some ideas for an envelope stuffer for current clients and a flier to post/distribute.

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I want to try and stay away from lighting and inflatables. We had in mind more of the craft and nature type feel. In my neck of the woods women are the major decision makers when it comes to decorating inside and outside of the home, on a national level this somewhat dated article backs this up to some extent. http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/current/page47.html Although the article is a few years old I believe this to be the same case today as then.

I feel that in order to tap into this as far as seasonal displays we need to put a product out that the majority of women in the residential setting will find appealing. Thinking like a rustic style small piece of picket fence (half scale or smaller) painted with an distressed paint look (patriotic theme), maybe a small scale wooden wheelbarrow with a planter inside it, I don&#39;t know what else at this point still trying to add to this theme. Spring seems a bit tougher theme to nail down, I&#39;ve loked on the web for ideas and really haven&#39;t hit on anything that makes me say WOW&#33;&#33; that&#39;s it&#33; We are putting togethor some planters that we will maintain, I&#39;m going to pick up the containers (large) Thursday. The plan is to target primarily our commercial accounts with these, but I can easily see this as an offering for residential clients as well.

Thanks for the ideas though TG lots of guys get involved with lighting, I just don&#39;t really get warm to that one though.

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Spring means flowers, sun, birds, new colors after a dull winter. What if you just went with planting "displays" of seasonal flowers? Get a few flats of annuals, maybe a bird bath, "cute" little bird feeders.....

Just a thought

\"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run\"

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Quote[/b] (kc2006 @ Jan. 25 2006,8:51)]Just a thought I&#39;m going to toss out there for you.

Spring means flowers, sun, birds, new colors after a dull winter. What if you just went with planting "displays" of seasonal flowers? Get a few flats of annuals, maybe a bird bath, "cute" little bird feeders.....

Just a thought

This is a possibility we have been giving thought to, thanks for the suggestion. Like I said we want to stick with the rustic/ natural/ craft type looks. Flats of annuals are for the most part inexpensive which is kind of what we are shooting for. Thats to say if it is an item for any display that carries an expense we would try and make that an item we could store and thereby re-use. Again this to me anyway, kind of ties in with our maintained planters offering for commercial clients. We IMO would simply be extending this service to our residential accounts, with a bit more expression.

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Wood crafts are an item we thought would be popular and we could re-use, store when not in use. I want to stay away from items that need to be mounted such as flags, although the doorhangers are an idea worth exploring.
I want one good, solid display to work with for starters, if this is an item that goes over well I would expand it with more variations. Really each one should contain the same basic "ingredients" how you use them will be dependent upon the property IMO thus giving the appearance/opportunity to create differing displays.

Our typical pricing structure for something like this would be a 100% markup in materials cost so if, for example a bale of straw,our cost, is &#036;3 we would charge &#036;6 this would cover our cost and delivery, this markup would be similar for re-usable items as we would need to take into account storage and eventual replacement. We charge an hourly rate of &#036;45 p.m.h. so if two people take 1.5 hours to set up: 1.5 x &#036;45 x 2 I would expect the tear down to be a bit quicker than the setup but this would be included in the price also, i.e. 1 x &#036;45 x 2.
The better idea I have for materials the more concrete the pricing will be, but invoicing will be billed out as a total package not individual charges. I have a &#036; amount for flats of plants and large containers, but still need to locate some other items that would be popular, this is something as I said, for spring, I am still looking for.

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Something else I was thinking of was maybe offering three different packages maybe? Where say a basic package would just include a specific number of potted plants to put along a walkway or on the edge of a house&#39;s front stairs?

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Good idea TG this is what I&#39;m leaning to for a spring display possibly an added expense to our maintenance plans, i.e. &#036;x per week for maintaining the potted plants, fertilizing, watering, keeping weeds out, etc. What do you think?

Customer can request different size container to suit their needs, price will be determined by request.

Side note, we will be browsing through some craft and hobby stores on Tuesday, 1/31 in an effort to find more offerings for earlier spring. Also will pick up supplies to make cutouts, from plywood and other materials for summer and fall displays. I want to take a stab at making some wooden sunflowers, a scaled down rustic picket fence section, and a scaled down wooden wheelbarrow.

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Super job&#33;&#33; Thanks TG, I will definitely use this in letters, invoices, and include with promotional material the carpet cleaning owner will send out with his invoices. Pictures are in the works when this weather is better suited for them. Thanks again.